Diamonds are supposed to be forever! An Update

After all the denials of Diamond Bank, Access Bank and Diamond Bank merger is finally made public. They are out with the truth. I learnt from the Sanusi Lamido era in Central Bank that you can never trust bankers. Beneath all those power suits there is more than you can imagine. Bad loans, wrong decisions, board members resigning Paschal Dozie really disappointed some of us. You would think that Diamond Bank was as solid as a rock! Diamonds are supposed to be forever. Who loses in the mix? Only the shareholders really. They have watched the stock plunge from N10 to below one Naira! Edozien and his first son get the good end of the stick. His son would probably get a place on the board of Access Bank and father will still remain a billionaire. Such is the lot of the poor shareholder! The Diamond group are trying hard to make it look like a merger with Access Bank but probe deeper and you will find its an acquisition. In a heated debate I had a couple of days ago some people tried to blame the economy and Buhari for the dip in the fortunes of the bank. That is not so. Its bad management. Faulty decisions on the part of the Edozien scion. Word in banking circles had it that international investors were willing to come on board if the scion resigned as MD, but the elder Edozien would never have it. Either the bank remains in the family or goes into acquisition. A sad pot of affairs for those who saw the bank as "their" bank. Word on the street has it that thousands might be laid off from the acquisition process. Knowing the Access style of banking which is leaner on staff and aggressive with marketing; People in banking point to the Intercontinental example. A sizable number of Erastus Akingbola's staff were laid off when they were acquired. Access is getting bigger and stronger. Perhaps they owe their management style to their root. Access has key foundation staff coming from GTB who are also known for the leaner and meaner approach to management.

THE SHOCKS IN THE ECONOMY: WHAT THE EXPERTS WONT TELL YOU!

There is no doubt that the economy is growing in Nigeria. The only tragedy is it is growing into the pockets of 15 percent of our vast 170milion people! With the dip in the prices of oil, government is going to be under pressure to raise money to balance out. So prepare for a raise in the prices of utilities: electricity, water and even telecoms! Petroleum prices will go up! Anything we import will cost more: wheat, rice, cooking oil and sugar. These are the major food imports to Nigeria. Do not let the figures the Agric ministry shows fool you. Nigeria is still importing close to 40 percent of food products consumed. We will pay more to import fuel so thats why the price might go up and the subsidy they claim to add because they have been too lazy to finance the building of refineries will cost the Nigerian public dearly. The tax man will come knocking at doors and tariffs on certain products will go higher when the government is looking for revenue to run the economy.
All this will not be done until after the elections. The managers of our economy have been caught napping and it is the Nigerian masses that will pay for it. The politicians will continue to feed fat on the economy and even if there is a change of government at the centre which is unlikely(have you ever seen an incumbent lose in Africa) even the APC does not have immediate solutions to all these problems. Our debt is big and nobody is talking about servicing it! We will continue deficit budgeting and consumption. Okonjo Iweala does not have a way out. She has presided over a wasteful consumption of resources. It is a shame!

Another view on HSBC and UBS: why they left Nigeria!

People have been screaming about the exit of HSBC and UBS as sign of bad economics. That's a huge lie.
I will try to explain it in a very simple way.
HSBC and UBS were never set up for regular banking.
When I say regular banking I mean retail banking.
They never ran salary accounts; they were never set up to afford loans to customers etc.
Their sole purpose was to help customers who can afford their services an easy way to transfer funds overseas.
Many do not know that since the inception of BVN which has made it easier for financial regulatory bodies to monitor outflow & inflow on every account, HSBC has been plotting their exit.
If anyone can make their books public, you would find out they had more outflow than inflow.
BVN was created February 2014, it was only enforced by this government as from 2015.
What did that do?
Every account owner was
forced to get a BVN code on their account (s).
So, if law enforcement and financial regulatory bodies accuse you of fraud, with your BVN
they can tell.... which account(s) you have funds stashed.
Any account without a BVN can no longer be run. Movement of (illicit) huge sums, especially to overseas became a massive problem.
So, imagine a bank whose main source of revenue is moving illicit funds overseas, suddenly can stay for months on end and the only customers you get are those who maybe want
pay school fees overseas or medicals, won't you close shop?
No more wires of $200,000 and above to Dubai to buy that exotic penthouse or carrying on with shopping sprees.
No more bank instruments to private jet companies... overseas.
The importation of big boy toys; yachts, helicopters have reduced drastically.
Now, once you try to initiate a huge wire transfer, CBN red flags that account and next thing you know compliance is calling the account officer to produce KYC.
Within minutes SFU is doing a background check, thunder fire you if you are a civil servant or close to government.
You would have to explain what the funds are for/how they were acquired and this drastically hit such banks like HSBC and UBS!
Banks like Standard Chartered, Stanbic IBTC, Citibank are able to stay afloat because even though they use the same model as HSBC, they are also solid in retail banking.
Any bank that opens shop under this current government with the sole aim of moving funds overseas will surely fail!
Look closely at those who are leading groups against PMB they are private jet, helicopter, yacht, schooners owners.
Many own those beautiful houses we see in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Muscat, Seychelles, London, USA.
Go to our airports especially Lagos and Abuja, all those beautiful girls who once used to sell Dubai real estate deals are out of jobs.
The few you see have stopped hounding travelers like before.
Once upon a time you would see them hanging around airports and 5 star hotels, it made me wonder why Nigerians were seriously marketing UAE real state.
How do you think the transactions were being made? Through banks like HSBC and UBS (many of our local banks also were complicit)!
Now every dollar that passes through CBN to a foreign bank must have complete paperwork! Bankers are now very careful, no one wants to be invited by SFU (special fraud
unit) or EFCC to produce a customer.
Who are those crying about their exit?
The Fayoses, Atikus, Ben Bruces and their minions etc.
Look at the youth coming online to defend them; many were being flown by helicopter to private resorts all over the country.
That tap has dried up and that’s the reason you see many of them online pouring vituperation on PMB.
About 4 years ago, I told a friend that if PMB wins election few banks would be in trouble, Buhari won and it didn't take long it started
happening.
Many of the bank heads used depositors monies to sponsor politicians/campaigns, when investigations started many tried to not only hide their shady deals but shield customers under investigation.
Why won't these people hate PMB?
Why won't they blame their woes on PMB?
When I say many of these banks aren't setup for the common man, people wonder at what I mean.
A very good example; write a lovely proposal for a good business deal and take to the banks and 90% of the time you wont get funding but let APC and PDP finish primaries and produce governorship candidates.
Both candidates can work into same bank and get as much as N500m each for campaigns. Banks didn't care then.
What's the worst that could happen? Worst case scenario, one candidate would lose. Whoever wins would bring enough investments that would cover the N1bn both took, that was conventional banking until PMB came onboard.
If say Odudu Bank sponsors Gochas and he wins he would make sure almost all state accounts go to Odudu Bank.
Some governors went as far as making their account officers commissioners as compensation (I don’t want to call names).
Some bank relationship managers would go on leave close to election period to join the clients on the campaign trail, once the client wins they resign their appointments with the bank and become political appointees.
Why would a bank worker do that if the bank hasn't invested heavily on that politician?
Suddenly PMB appears with this yeye BVN, TSA! Banks now see SFU officers like regular staff as they are monitoring everything. @officialEFCC under magu has become a pain in the ass because money can't just disappear.
Who do they blame? PMB!
The instant BVN came into effect; do you know how many accounts were lying dormant because of BVN? With huge sums in them! Many folks especially people being investigated wouldn't want to come forward to claim them; oga Magu and gang were waiting.
When many of these politicians or billionaires tell you the economy isn't doing so well, look closely at the person because many of them
own some of these 5 star hotels.
Some rooms go as much N300, 000 à night.
Once upon time some folks would pay for as much as one year for a room/suite upfront.
Many of those militants/ folks involved in oil bunkering operate this way.
Mondays through Fridays they are in the creeks sabotaging oil installations, Friday they get into their convoys to Port Harcourt and then jet off to Abuja and Lagos where they eventually check into these hotels.
You enter a place like Transcorp weekends you see them at the lobby, poolside and by Monday morning, banks are wiring funds to these hotels to cover expenses.
Today, the oil bunkering isn’t as lucrative as it once was.
First, price of crude has dropped so selling bunkered oil isn't really worth it as it used to be.
Secondly many countries are cutting down on the purchase of crude and third our military is hitting them harder than before so who is to blame?
They tell you banks are falling because of PMB; lie! Banks are falling because banks were never made for the common man.
I mean naija banks! TSA has collapsed most government accounts into central accounts.
So, we no longer have many government accounts littered all over our banks, many of such accounts were set up just to steal and launder government monies.
Are these tweets saying Nigeria has suddenly become fine for the common man? Hell No!
Nigeria for some years now has never favored us the ordinary folks but this is the first time we are seeing the crooked elite joining us to complain!
The fact they are complaining means something is being done to halt their crooked ways. Whatever it is, Baba Please Continue!
And as for the common man, we didn’t get here in four years! It took years of plundering, bad/no planning to get here. It will take a while to get us out.

Signed
Concerned citizen, who wouldn’t want to get fired by Monday morning for
saying what needs to be said.

Fashola challenges Nigerians to facts

Excerpts from Speech by Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN- Honourable Minister of Power, Works and Housing FMPWH at the FGNTownHall Meeting in Ibadan yesterday. It’s a thread;

“In 2015 the budget left behind by the previous government was N19 billion for works, N5 Billion for power, N1.2 Billion for housing, Total: N25.2 Billion

In 2017, the budget for works was N394 Billion; Power was N69.96 Billion & Housing was N64.9 Billion (Total N529 Billion).”

BRF: “We are constructing houses in 34 states in a pilot scheme to determine affordability and acceptability; and we have 90 transmission projects aimed at improving connectivity between the GenCos and the DisCos who serve you.”

“Those 90 projects are largely resuscitated because this government has recovered 690 containers of power equipment out of over 800 containers left at the Port for almost a decade because they did not pay contractors, who then could not pay the shippers & warehouse companies.”

“Those of you from Ondo and environs will agree that although the work is not finished, your travel time on the Benin-Ore-Sagamu road has reduced. Our contractor is on site and has to work while you use the road.” — @tundefashola

“The same is true of the Lagos-Ibadan Exp that connects Lagos, Ogun and Oyo; and links to Ondo. Those of you who use the road will acknowledge that you no longer have to spend the night on the road. You can go to Ibadan from Lagos and be sure that you can return on the same day.”

“Yet we have not finished. Please as you prepare to choose next year, remember those long hours on Benin-Ore, Lag-Ibadan that sometimes stretched into the Night. Do you want to go back? Ask yourself if progress on these roads in 3 yrs is better than what you‘ve seen over 16 yrs.”

“It will help you decide who to choose to ensure that the road is finished, and you can move forward. Also remember those who presided over the cuts in the budget of these roads in the 2017 budget.”

“As they plan to frustrate and slow down the Buhari Govt, the president innovates & finds solutions. There is now a Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund to ensure that the Second Niger bridge, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road, Lagos-Ibadan Exp... are not deprived of funding again.”

“Major roads in the Southwest like the Lagos-Otta-Abeokuta Road, the Ikorodu-Sagamu road, which had been deserted and left to decay, now have contractors at work. Do you want to go back to that?”

“The Apapa-TinCan-Mile 2 -Oshodi- Oworonshoki road has been awarded and work should start sometime in November this year as the construction equipment are being readied. This will give a final solution for the gridlock that was inherited from the last government.”

“These are some of the examples of what has changed and is changing for the better.

Those who ran it aground for 16 years now say we are not quick enough.

The question you right thinking and well-meaning citizens should ask is which Nation has been rebuilt in 4 years?”

“It is going to take more than one election cycle to consolidate on the progress I have shared with you; and if you do not choose wisely you can reverse it.”

“A choice to go back is a choice to reverse this progress and a choice to move forward is a sensible choice to consolidate and progress.

Those same people who caused the problem cannot now be trusted to fix it.”

“You will hear from them that the country has problems as they try to weaponise our challenges to deceive Nigerians.”

“Infrastructure decayed under their watch; insurgency & bombings started under their watch; grand corruption under their watch makes it impossible to identify 1 item of critical infrastructure that Nigeria can point to in a decade during which oil price averaged $100 per barrel.”

“On the housing side, as I said we are in every state including all the states of the South West except Lagos. Each site employs not less than 1,000 people made up of builders, artisans, fabricators, and vendors and we plan to do much more.”

“Through this infrastructure commitment, the President and the government are driving the economy vehicle in the right direction. The last quarter report of the National Bureau of Statistics for Q2 of 2018 shows the following rate of growth in sectors affected by my ministry:”

“i) Transportation – (Road, rail, water and air) – 21.76%

ii) Construction – 7.66%

iii) Electricity – 7.59%.”

“But it is not just travel time reduction, & economic growth that is impacted, the number of road traffic accidents, injuries and loss of lives are reducing month by month as FRSC figures from June & July 2018 show. While the biggest cause of accidents remains speed violations.”

“Let me close with some specific comments on power in the South West: Magboro, Mowe, Ibafo, Ondo (North and South) are communities who were never connected to power supply before. That story has changed. They are now connected and experiencing power supply. That is Change.”

“This is because we increased generation from 4,000 to 7,000 MW; averaging 1,000 MW per annum; Transmission from 5,000 to 7,000MW averaging 660MW per annum, and distribution from 2,690 MW in May 2015 to 5,222MW in January 2018, averaging 844 MW per annum.”

“We have not finished and we have not reached everybody yet; but many of you can tell the difference now and attest to the fact that things have changed for the better.”

“Ask yourself if you use your generator longer today than in 2015 or if you spend less money on diesel today than in 2015, or if you are getting power supply longer today than in 2015.

Please choose next year according to that answer.”

“Also ask yourself who has done better: 4,000 MW over 16 years at an average 250 MW per annum? Or 3000 MW over 3 years at an average of 1000 MW per annum?

I have addressed the choice before you between going back and moving forward.”

“Let me end my contribution on another issue that is critical to the decision you have to make about your future.

That issue is TRUST.”

“Who will you trust to better manage your affairs. The one who did less with more; or the one that is doing more with less.

Without a doubt, we have done more with less time and with less money. That is change and we remain committed to doing more.”

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN

Honourable Minister of Power, Works and Housing FMPWH

Whats happening to the economy?

The nation is going through so many distractions on the political turf that those who ought to be in charge of managing our economy seem to be in the slack. Adams Oshiomhole and his war of words with the Senate President took up the national psyche for so long and the debate over who is the best PDP or APC seems to be of more importance to us than our economy. Its been over a year now since Senator Udo Udoma launched our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan(ERP) which contextually is said to be a continuation of the 2016 Strategic Implementation Plan. The objectives are aid the nation in
Tackling Corruption
Improving Security
Rebuilding the Nigerian Economy
Oil is at the centre of the plan. And there are questions that must arise: Are we meeting our daily quota of oil which was placed at 2.2million barrels a day? If we are not meeting that quota, how much oil is being produced? Is the target of reaching 2.5 million barrels per day by 2020 still realistic?
The tragedy of having politicians in key economic and developmental positions is showing.As we draw close to an election they tend to shut down. Senator Udoma was beating his chest for a meager 2% growth in the economy last time he spoke. Most economies would achieve that on auto pilot! They do not really care how things go. Any responsible government should be giving its citizens updates on the economy as regularly as possible. Right now the central discussion is the preparation for the 2019 General Election. INEC has not even finished registering would-be voters but the politicians characteristically are more concerned about the money for the election and the next position. Taxation has taken a leap at the Federal Level and in some states like Lagos. The prerequisites in terms of infrastructure are just too slow in coming. The empowerment and social welfare programmes are just trickling in. Let's wake up people. Those who run this economy have to live up to their responsibility.We have to make them do it.
This government promised the electorate:
Massive investment in developing people
A highly efficient social welfare programme
Better infrastructure. Where is it all?

Saraki Got This One Right!

I am not a fan of Bukola Saraki, in fact I detest his politics. But there are some things I have watched the man do that simply amaze me. On his twitter page the following entry was made today:
Tonight, I spoke to Chinenye, Linda Igwetu’s sister. Such a tragedy.

They deserve justice and I commit to doing my best to achieve this. May her soul Rest In Peace.

You could say this is photo ops for publicity, I certainly was tempted to say so, but if you ask me, this is what our President Muhammadu Buhari should be doing. You might not like the components of the NASS and how they keep "ploughing the field to their own advantage" but when they get it right we simply have to say so!
The NASS is light years ahead of the Presidency. They are setting the agenda, they have pulled the rug out from beneath the feet of the president more times than I can count and he is playing catch up. All this, in a presidential system of government? We 

might as well rename a our system a legislative one.

Just think of the damage Bad Leadership can do!

Do those who run for political office really understand what it takes to transform a country. Do parents lead their children in the right way? Bosses know that the company or organization depends on their leadership capabilities.

Bad Leadership can do the following evils to a family, religious organization, community, country or even company: Bad leadership:

1. Costs you time: A bad leaders would waste time at unprofitable ventures ignoring those things that need to be done. And all the people s/he leads would suffer for it so will the organization. Nigerians who are in their 40s and 50s will realize that very little has been achieved in our democracy these 19 years. The stories are still the same.

2. Lost Opportunities: Definitely opportunities are lost when the leader lacks the skills and vision to lead the entity through a crisis situation or to make the people achieve a commonly desired state of being.

3. Lost Momentum; Some African countries got independence around the same time that the so called Asian Tigers got theirs. Today there is a world of difference between us. At some point in time we derailed. How can we be so blessed but so poor at the same time?

4.Lost Money: Its amazing how bad leadership will cause business people, givers in a church, customers to a company or even opportunities to a family to disappear. I just cant imagine how much money Nigeria has lost. The thieves who are leaders take our money to countries like Switzerland , UK and US and when they come back home we welcome them like heroes. Part of the problem is with the follower ship.

5 Damaging peoples' Values. The present young generation is in chaos over what is wrong and what is right. We used to have dignity in labor, but there are a lot of youngsters who just want to eat without working; they seem gambling, gangsterism and cultism as a way of life.

6. Damages generational wealth: The war in Syria is such that a lot of the houses, artifacts and investments can never be recovered again. Boko Haram and Killer Herdsmen continue to wreck serous havoc in Northern Nigeria and Government appears to be helpless to stop it.

7. Damages High Standards: These days people are willing to take short cuts in services, industry, governance and even parenting and the results are obvious. Standards fall and the outcomes are horrible.

8. Destroys accountability: Bad leaders feel that they are not accountable to anyone. They do whatever they like and tend to get away with it. But it bounces back on their followers. Parents who are bad leaders will raise children without values or a sense of purpose, bad leaders of a country will waste the resources and not care about it. Bad leaders defy accountability and dont care about the people who follow or look up to them.

Inspired by Bishop Tudor BIsmack

Who is responsible for budget 2018?

It took our leaders in government eight months to pass the budget. Now that they have passed it into law, its not out of place to ask who is responsible for the document that would to a large extent guide us in our spending and development processes for the next one year. I am a bit confused here, and perhaps those of you who read this would be able to clarify: what role does the legislative have in budgeting for this country called Nigeria? Recently, the law makers increased the budget of N 8 Trillion to N 9.3 Trillion. They also raised their own recurrent expenditure from N125 billion to N139 billion. Why are their expenses going up? Are they increasing their own salaries? To add insult to injury, they cut financing on major roads all around the country and budgeted for their strange constituency projects.
When you look at the components of the budgetary allocations that they made for their own spending you would wonder if they are not rivaling governors in their various constituencies.
The National Assembly, like the Governors in the states are becoming lords unto themselves. Nobody seems to be able to check them. Their sundry idea of empowerment is to conduct seminars on agriculture and give Tricycles to their constituents. My question is: should all of this come from a federal budget? Industrial sewing machines, grinding machines etc?
I have seen tricycles in Lagos with the names of Legislators inscribed on them. What does this mean? Do we believe that the money actually comes from their pockets? Or is it from their constituency allowances? How do they decide who should be empowered among the multitudes in their constituencies?
In all this, I blame our rather intellectually indolent Attorney General who should be able to challenge some of the actions of the legislative in court and forget some of these strange cases he has been filing. Abubakar Malami has again failed in his responsibility of safe guarding the FG from constitutional embarrassment. Are our legislators now playing the executive function? Should they stop road and bridge projects from being completed just to satisfy their personal dispositions? Someone ought to challenge them. Pray, who is responsible for budget 2018? Why should the president complain publicly and appear to be asking us for help? Why does President Buhari seem to have signed the document reluctantly?

Zamfara, Lagos: backwardness and development

There are two kinds of people: Those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group, there is less competition there- Indira Ghandi.

I often feel ashamed discussing how Nigerian leaders have been unable to articulate and justify the reasons why they are in the positions they find themselves. One of our poorest reference points in Nigeria today is Zamfara State, a state where the governor recently cried out that he could no longer perform the duty of chief security officer of the state because herdsmen and armed militia keep coming into the state to sack the villages. That could be an honest declaration, considering the state of our security in Nigeria.

Zamfara is not strange to the news. The Chief Executive of the state, Alhaji Abdul'aziz Abubakar Yari was elected Governor of Zamfara State, Nigeria in the 26 April 2011 national elections. His greatest claim to newsworthiness is when he wantonly declared that the state was attacked by and outrage of meningitis because of the lifestyle of his people. His belief was that God was punishing his people with the ailment because they had been sinful. Zamfara is one of the most backward states in Nigeria. It has a penetration for vaccination as low as 2%, it also has the highest occurrences of child marriage among girls who have barely reached puberty and the lowest number of students who have attempted WAEC in the country. Simply put, in spite of fertile land and massive farming potentials, Zamfara is still way out in the 19th century. A former governor of the state Senator Ahmed Yerimah has been accused of marrying under aged girls on more than one occasion. Yerimah is the architect of the Sharia Law in Zamfara state which he governed for eight years during the Obasanjo administration.

Alhaji Yari the current governor of Zamfara is also the Chairman of the Governor’s forum of Nigeria, an association of which every governor in the country is a member. You can’t help but wonder the kind of banter that would occur in a association of governors with such leadership.

There are states in Nigeria that are far more developed than Zamfara. In fact Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Lagos poll as some of the top states in the area of development. But again we need to be very clear in our analysis. How quickly are these states developing? What trends are their chief executives taking note of and who are they benchmarking? State Senate leader Kevin de León recently claimed at the Democratic National Convention that California in the United States has "the sixth largest economy on planet Earth." This hypothetical comparison rests on California's $2.4 trillion GDP, which moved slightly above that of France and Brazil in 2015 to sixth in the world. Lagos probably has the largest economy in West Africa with a monthly IGR that borders the N34billion mark Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has described the state as the fastest growing mega city in the world, just as he revealed that it’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has hit $136 billion. This all sounds good but In spite of these figures, much is left to be desired in Nigeria’s economic development. Nigeria is in flux. Public spending does not show enough investment in the teeming population in the country. Health care delivery is at its lowest ebb, transport is mainly by road, Apapa Port the nations gateway to import and export is permanently in a gridlock, electricity is unstable.

Certain questions arise from the gaps in development from one state to another. Why are the gaps in state development so wide and far from each other and with so few in between? Even with Zamfara as our worse and Lagos as our best much is still needed to be done. The answer is of course leadership! African countries cannot be said to lack resources. In fact Nigeria is an example of a country that has all the resources that can be thought of but with little or nothing to show for it. Ghana is another. Mensa Otabil a Pastor and Chairman to numerous corporations in Ghana described leadership as “the process of influencing others to realize beneficial aspirations”. Most Africans leaders and indeed Nigerian leaders lack this skill. The country needs leaders that are not Czars and Emperors like many of the governors tend to appear. Leaders who are not oppressing, not suppressing but are willing to promote goals and values that influence a majority of people, so that people would follow them, not for their power and money, but for their vision. Nobody seems to thinking about the future. How do we occupy our restive youth population? What should be our plans 10 or twenty years from now? Zimbabwe in spite of all the economic and political trouble it has faced recently convened a group of experts to discuss how the country could have an economy worth $500billion! Nigeria is buy grappling with N9trillion and we cannot seem to see beyond that. Are these leaders forward thinking?

A former governor of the Zamfara state, Senator Ahmed Yerimah has been accused of marrying under aged girls on more than one occasion. Yerimah is the architect of the Sharia Law in the state which he governed for eight years during the Obasanjo administration. Yerimah is now in the senate and yet his state is even more backward than he left it.

As we totter in a fragile economy that depends mainly on oil exports in which our budget and planning office is celebrating 2% growth, we all ought to be worried about the future. We keep reminiscing over the impact of our founding fathers: Awolowo, Azikiwe and Amadu Bello. Perhaps its because we have not seen such politicians in the current breed. How long will our economy depend on oil to balance things out? How long will state governors wait for allocations from Abuja before they can pay salaries, let alone develop their states. There is a big gap in the intellectual prowess of today’s politicians. They seem to think once they are comfortable, then everything is okay.Peter Drucker, management guru, captures it in a quote:"Chief executives are not there own masters. They are servants of the organization whether elected or appointed, whether the organization is a government a government agency, a business, a hospital, a diocese. Its their duty to subordinate their likes, wishes and preferences to the welfare of the institution." Nigerian leaders seem to think different.May God help Nigeria. We simply cannot continue this way.

Ibrahim Mantu is a hero for confessing to rigging elections- Doyin Okupe.

I listened with a lot of consternation to Dr. Doyin Okupe call Ibrahim Mantu a hero for confessing to rigging elections for his party. The interview was done by Faith Dafe Joseph on LagosTalks913 a Lagos based talk radio station. According to Dr. Okupe, "everyone is involved in rigging" and it takes a lot for someone of Mantu's stature to come out in the open and confess to such activities.

Mantu made the confession on national television and since then reactions have ranged from "crucify him" to "what a man of courage". One strange thing that arises from the analysis from Dr. Okupe is that no election in Nigeria has been credible since democracy begun. That all elections have been rigged!

Many people believe that Mantu's confession and Dr. Okupe's hero endorsement are signs of the dire circumstances of our democracy.

Rigging appears to be the norm rather than an exception. The politicians of today it seems would stop at nothing to win elections, even if it means cheating at the polls and feigning victory.

So far the law enforcement agencies, INEC and the government have been silent over Mantu's comments. IT appears that we suffer from gross despondency and perhaps a touch of voter apathy which could characterize the next elections. This, it appears, is exactly what a lot of politicians who cant win a fair election are banking on to get back into office.

What Bill Gates said about Nigeria

“While it may be easier to be polite, it’s more important to face facts so that you can make progress.”

“The current quality and quantity of investment in this young generation in health and education just isn’t good enough. So, I was very direct.”

“Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth, with the fourth worst maternal mortality rate in the world ahead of only Sierra Leone, Central African Republic and Chad. One in three Nigerian children is chronically malnourished.

“In upper middle-income countries, the average life expectancy is 75 years. In lower middle-income countries, it’s 68; in low-income countries, it’s 62. In Nigeria, it is lower still, just 53 years.

“The Nigerian government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan identifies investing in the people as one of three strategic objectives. But the execution priorities don’t fully reflect people’s needs, prioritising physical capital over human capital. People without roads, ports and factories can’t flourish. And roads, ports and factories without skilled workers to build and manage them can’t sustain an economy.”

10 things Kemi Adeosun said about tax

The Federal Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, broadcasted a live Facebook session on her Facebook page on Thursday, August 3, 2017.

The broadcast is a fulfillment of the Federal Government’s Tax Thursday initiative under the new Voluntary Assets Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS).

Tax Thursday has been slated, every Thursdays till March 2018, by the government to be a designated day of the week where there is a focus on the tax system in the country.

1. Nigeria is not an oil economy, so taxation is important

According to Adeosun, "Oil economies tend to have a lot of oil and very few people. Saudi Arabia has 30 million people and they pump 10 million barrels of oil a day; so, if they wanted to share their oil, 3 people share one barrel.

"Nigeria, with 190 million people, only pumps two million barrels of oil a day; so, if you wanted to share the oil, 90 people will share a barrel.

"Most oil economies with a lot of oil and few people can afford not to have a real tax system. So, in Saudi Arabia for example, the tax-to-GDP is 6%, same as Nigeria.

"But because Nigeria is not really an oil economy, we can't afford to do that because oil is actually 10% of our GDP."

2. 56 million economically active Nigerians are not paying their taxes

"What we found in Nigeria at the moment is that we only have 14 million taxpayers out of about 70 million people that are economically active.

"And the majority of that 14 million are people who have their taxes deducted at the source; largely lower income workers.

"That means that the tax burden is not being shared fairly. It's being carried by those who are least able to afford it whereas high net worth people are able to evade tax.

3. VAIDS is amnesty for honest Nigerians

"What we've done is launch Voluntary Assets Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) to give people an opportunity to regularise, we know, we have the data now.

"So we have a picture of the assets that people have, and those assets are supposed to be purchased out of tax returns.

"Under VAIDS, we're now giving people an opportunity to go back over the last five, six years and restate their tax returns, and regularise, and pay any taxes that they should have paid at the time.

"People have a window of nine months to go and regularise their tax status. Look at your lifestyle, the assets that you hold, how did you fund them, have you paid tax on those monies before you bought those assets.

"We're not saying if you have a home abroad, you have to pay for it, but when you bought that house abroad, where did you get the money from? If that money came from Nigeria or you're a Nigerian resident tax payer, did you pay the right taxes before you bought that house?

4. Tax evasion is as bad as corruption

"We've had a project running here in the Ministry of Finance for the past 15 months and what it's been doing is building profiles. It looks at BVN, land records, car registration, private jet ownership, company's house records. It's building a financial profile of the individual.

"What do you own both here and abroad? And then we check your tax record. What did you declare?

"And once there's a disconnect, and in many thousands of cases, there's a huge disconnect, and once people understand how much data we have, they will begin to come into the tax net.

"We're building a very accurate financial picture of people, not just on assets here in Nigeria, but around the world.

"After March, once you don't come clean, we commence really very aggressive prosecutions and we're going to be discussing with the CJ about the possibility of setting up special tax courts.

"Tax evasion is one of the easiest prosecutions, and it's one of the hardest things to defend because the law is very clear.

"There can't be very many defences. If you have this asset, how did you get it?

5. Response has been positive

"The response has been very positive. I think there's the sort of attitude, sort of national recognition. We need to come together and get this done. We think the resistance to paying tax is breaking down.

"And of course, part of that resistance is that people feel like, 'Even if I pay tax, what do I get?'.

"Our response to that is which one came first? The chicken or the egg? Somebody has to break that cycle. And we have to break that cycle by doing the right thing.

"If a man in the hot sun is paying his/her taxes correctly, if a policeman is paying his/her taxes correctly, the high net worth and middle class individuals must also do the right thing. Everybody must do what is needful."

6. Government needs to be more responsible with spending taxpayer money

"On government's side, we've got to be better at spending money, we've got to be more efficient, we've got to be more accountable so that people can see that it's a partnership, and that as they pay, government is doing what government is meant to do.

"Under President Muhammadu Buhari, we are incredibly committed to doing the right thing, providing value for money.

"We already have an efficiency unit and we're trying to cut cost wherever we can to make sure that when people do pay the taxes, they can see the benefits in their own lives."

7. Side businesses must also pay tax

"We have a lot of people who are in the tax net that have a full time job but also have like three, four, five businesses running on the side. Those businesses are also taxable.

"In some cases, what we find is that the main job is actually just a little bit of the income.

"You find someone making jewelry and they're making a fortune but they're not paying any taxes. That's got to be corrected.

8. Air tickets will soon be taxed

"We signed something yesterday on luxury goods; champagne, brandy, whiskey, wine, jewelry, high-end jewelry.

"We've signed something that will be a surcharge on first class and business class tickets, we are just doing the final parts of the implementation and we also want to try and amend the tax payer book on high end cars, and an additional surcharge on luxury cars."

9. Some Nigerians in diaspora will have to pay tax too

"If you're a Nigerian resident for tax purposes, it means you lived in Nigeria for 185 days of the year. We've signed bilateral agreements with many countries so there's no double taxation; if you're paying your taxes in the UK, or in America, or Canada, you're not affected by this.

"If you're resident for tax purposes in Nigeria, you have to pay your tax in Nigeria. You might live abroad, or holed up in Dubai or London for most of the year, but if you're registered in Nigeria as a taxpayer, you have to pay your tax in Nigeria, including taxes on income that you earn abroad.

"A Nigerian that owns a property abroad and rents it out, that income is taxable in Nigeria. The fact that you earned it (as a Nigerian resident for tax purposes), you have to declare in Nigeria and pay tax on it in Nigeria. That's what the law requires, and that's what we're enforcing."

10. Nigeria has survived solely on tax before

"The overall objective is to move our tax-to-GDP, our tax compliance rate from 6%. Really, we need to be able to be in the 16% range; Ghana is at 15%, South Africa is at 24%. We've really got to, as a nation, come together and sort this out.

"Some countries don't have oil. Before we had oil, we lived on taxes. Most of the works done on the old roads and old railways were done from the cocoa, the groundnut, and stuff we had before oil. So now, we've got to rewind and reset and go back to doing the right thing.

"And that'll put this country in an amazing position for the future because we'll not be dependent on oil, we'll have a far more diversified economy.

"There's absolutely nothing unique about our problems that we'll not be able to solve. We pool together, have a credible budget, we fight corruption, wastage, and make sure everybody who's meant to pay taxes pays the right taxes, brings the money into the pool and then we hold people accountable.

"The citizens have an assurance of a far better Nigeria. We'll grow at a stable and consistent base if we have a stable tax base.

"If we really aspire to be like many of the countries we admire, we've got to get this tax issue right." Culled from Pulse online.